good morning. happy friday. it is february 22nd, 2013. live look outside right now at the u.s. capitol dome. another cold start to your day. we'll see if the wind will kick up again. we've been dealing with that for a couple of days. >> oh yeah. >> lots of fun there. i'm sarah simmons. >> i'm wisdom martin. let's talk about the wind and all the weather with tucker barnes. happy friday. >> good news, sarah, we are done with the wind. bad news is we have a wintry

mix on the way. there you go. there is a look at your radar. we have indeed clouded up overnight. temperatures are cold. we are below freezing here even in washington. we are just 32 degrees so setting the stage to a light wintry mix event to start i think particularly if you are out to the west here over the next couple of hours and by late morning, early afternoon, we'll probably get some of that in washington. we are not expecting a lot of moisture. this will not be a major storm for us. however, temperatures recently have been on the cold side. and some of this moisture that falls into the region here in the form of snow, maybe sleet, maybe a little freezing rain could cause some issues for the evening commute. i think your morning commute will be fine but that evening commute could be challenging in some spots. it will arrive late morning early afternoon here locally. if you are out to the west, it is already starting to fall. i think they will have more of an impact out west earlier in the day. a winter weather advisory for

parts of the area west of town. we'll look at the weekend forecast as well. back to you guys. >> thank you. a warning for parents in southern montgomery county this morning. police say a man or several different men are stalking young women. there have been three cases in three weeks in the chevy chase and silver spring areas. victims say they were asked their names and questions about their bodies. anyone with information should call montgomery county police. south african sprint eros car pistorius stands in front of a judge for the fourth day in a row. today, he is expected to hear if he will be granted bail or told to stay in his jail cell on charges he murdered his girlfriend. strip police have named a new chief investigator to the case. snow continues to pound the nation's midsection dropping as much as 17-inches in some places shutting down airports and schools. the storm has also brought snow, sleet and freezing rain

to kansas and illinois. it is expected to hit the upper midwest this morning. in the district, a special council meeting will be held to discuss punishing councilmember jim graham by stripping away some of his power. >> it all temperatures from an ethics violation. the ethics board didn't have the power to punish graham so it appears the council may pick up where they left off. matt ackland has the story. >> reporter: it is graham leadership role that his colleagues could soon take away from him. >> his conduct adversely harmed the integrity of the district government. >> reporter: an ethics board said graham broke the code of conduct three times when it has to do with the lottery contract

and a development deal related to metro. but graham is not going down without a fight. he meant his lawyers to court to halt the ethics board findings. >> their findings were beyond their legal authority to reach without a hearing. let's have a process. we welcome the opportunity. >> reporter: chairman mendelsohn has been privately meeting about this reprimand for grant. he will likely have support for many members. >> i am going to fight it as long as i can to try to get them to agree that there ought to be a hearing. >> reporter: as mendelsohn briefed reporters outside his office, graham was listening just steps away. he hopes instead of punishing him on monday council members will call for a hearing to investigate instead. >> this can be solved if five members of this council request that a special committee be

convened to conduct a hearing. >> reporter: in the district, matt ackland, fox 5 news. we still have plenty ahead, your weather traffic and all your top stories. >> fox 5 morning news at 4:30 starts now. starts now. it is friday. happy friday, everyone. weekend is just hours away and we are off to a cold start to this friday. we've got more interesting weather coming up. you think it is cold now, get ready. i'm wisdom martin. >> i'm sarah simmons. welcome to fox 5 morning news. right now, it is just kind of cold. >> we do have the wintry event moving in. it will be a lot like what we've experience all winter long. not a major accumulation of any kind. however, there will be a period of time this afternoon where we are seeing a mix of many different -- what is the word

i'm looking for? many of nature's winter weapons. >> it is like a buffet. >> there you go. >> that is our word of the day. >> we have the winter highlights, some snow sleet, freezing rain and eventually transitioning to all rain. >> is it going to be different things all day or pop up here? >> it will start as a wintry mix for a couple of hours and then it will transition over to rain. i think by evening hours, we'll mostly just be a light rain. parts of the region will remain colder and they will stick in the wintry mix a lot longer than the rest of us. 32 at reagan national. 29 at dulles. cold enough areawide here for all of to us start off with wintertime action here. i want to show you a lot of different maps. we'll see if we can get the radar to move along here. as we get into the morning hours, here comes the snow and sleet. it is offer to the north and

west. you can seat white and pink start to move in from the south and west. that is not yet touching the ground. our viewers out to the west, you will get in on this wintry mix first. you are likely to have the most issues here later today. the temperatures will remain colder and particularly at the higher elevations could be dealing with more in the way of freezing rain. winter advisories, we don't have any locally now. national weather service will reconsider that later this morning. counties in pink so as you get out into -- excuse me in purple, you are under a winter weather advisory until 10:00 tomorrow morning. temperatures only get into the mid-30s later this morning. i'll have a lot more on the forecast here. we'll look at a lot of did you have rent maps in just a minute. >> we always get excited when there is anything that happens this winter because there is not a lot. >> let me stress probably enough to cause some issues for that evening commute. >> okay. >> let's talk about the early morning commute and say good

morning to julie wright. >> i got excited. i heard somebody say buffet and i ran in here. i was like there is no buffet. there is no chicken, no ribs, what's going on here. >> you will find yourself at speed as you continue headed in towards rockville. no issues reported for those traveling along the top stretch of the beltway between college park and bethesda. outer loop looks good leaving 270 headed back out towards tyson's. no problems to report coming inbound from the west along 66. i know tucker was saying this stretch of one of the interstates could find some treacherous driving conditions later on today. enjoy the dry pavement while it lasts. northbound i-59 still quiet in the express lanes and main line headed north from stafford to dale city through woodbridge. that's a check of your fox 5 on-time traffic. ime traffic. our top stories this morning an update on the

deadly hours fire in prince george's county. an 11-year-old girl remains in critical condition after she was pulled from the home in glenarden yesterday morning. a 36-year-old man, an 8-year- old and a 4-year-old girl all died. a woman and another 8-year-old girl are recovering in stable condition after they were able to escape. firefighters are still investigating the cause but say there were no working smoke alarms in the house. in northern virginia, a 25- year-old man is charged with the brutal murder of a are tired atf agent. 55-year-old greg holley, senior was walking his dog wednesday night. he was just steps away from his home when police say the suspect ambushed, shot and robbed him. the suspect was caught a short time later by an off-duty police officer after witnesses pointed him out. 25-year-old aric alexander smith is now facing first degree murder charges. the senseless murder leaving the community in shock. >> i would say this is kind of unusual but luckily the suspect was apprehended quickly and in

jail. >> if i could sum it up in one sentence, a great citizen, devoted father of four, four young men, married, wonderful wife, just a really, really great guy. >> holley leaves behind a wife and four sons. his family says greg's life work was about fighting crime and unfortunately it was carlisleent crime that took his life. d.c. council members are holding a special meeting next week to discuss taking action against ward one councilman jam graham. an ethics board said graham broke the code of conduct three times when it came to the lottery contract and development deal connected to metro. graham currently has oversight over how alcoholic beverages are regulated in the area. the county council last night elected laura neuman.

neuman was chosen over 15 other candidates to replace john leopold. ken ulman says autopsy arundel residents will be impressed by neuman's abilities. we are just one week away from the sequestration deadline. with congress in recess, coming up with a deal in time doesn't look good. >> on the line, billions of dollars in automatic cuts that could affect jobs in d.c., maryland and virginia. tom fitzgerald continues to monitor this from capitol hill. >> reporter: on capitol hill, warnings of sequestration as the deadline approaches. >> this is an artificial, unnecessary self-inflicted crisis that should end today. >> reporter: but with congress out of session, house democrats instead staged a hearing of their own policy committee on what $85 billion in immediate cuts would do to schools, the military and federal programs. >> in maryland, virginia and the district of columbia, we have 21% of all of the federal

payroll. >> reporter: steven fuller is a george mason university economics professor who has written a report on how sequestration will hit the d.c. area as it is still recovering from the recession. >> our economy used to be the fastest growing in the nation as a metropolitan area. now, we are in the bottom third. >> reporter: but the battle lines remain the same. while democrats blame republicans for not going along with their plans to raise higher tax revenues. >> since the new congress began, they have not put forward one proposal to prevent the across the board sequester. >> i try to put myself in the place of the regular citizen who sits here and watches this. they got to be scratching their heads. >> reporter: republicans insist deeper entitlement cuts are needed not more tax money. >> now, a time to get serious

about reducing washington's out of control spending. >> reporter: virginia republican congressman randy forbes says the white house is to blame for the sequestration crisis because he says it create the budget cutting mechanism in the first place. >> the president signed it into law. he didn't have to sign it into law. he did. and for over a year from august 2011 through the end of last year, the president did nothing to stop it. >> reporter: for his part, president obama has hit the road in recent days hoping to bring public pressure to bear on lawmakers from both sides. of course, if there is a deal to be made lawmaker are running out of time to make it. the sequestration deadline hits on friday, march 1st. on capitol hill tom fitzgerald, fox 5 news. the national governors association conference begins this evening and if you are traveling downtown this weekend, you may find delays. e street will be shut down between 13th and 14th streets in northwest and there may be other road closures in the area. officials are all asking the

drivers be mindful of heavy pedestrian traffic. the conference runs through monday. infamous ex-cop drew peterson, you remember him, an angry outburst at the sentencing for the murder of his third wife. we'll have details. tourists watch as a dramatic scene plays out on the las vegas strip. the latest on the shootout between two cars and the accident that claimed the life of a rapper. that is coming up next. ♪ ♪ i'd like to thank

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some new details this morning about a dramatic scene along the las vegas strip. among the three people killed in yesterday's shooting and fiery car crash is rapper kenny clutch and police are still looking for who fired the shots. police say it all as a resulted with an argument in the va left t area of the a ri. a resort. the focus is on finding a black range rover that fled the scene. drew peterson lashed out

during his sentencing shouting did i not kill kathleen. a judge sentenced him to 38 years behind bars for the murder of his third wife. kathleen savio's 2004 death was originally ruled accidental but investigators took loot look into the case after peterson's fourth wife, stacey, vanished a few years later. he has not been charged in that case. more trouble for lance armstrong. the head of the u.s. antidoping agency has lobbied the justice department to join a whistle- blower lawsuit against the disgraced cyclist. it was filed by floyd landis. d landis. the justice department has not announced whether it will join the case. turns out the flu vaccine isn't doing a good job at protecting those who need it the most. so just how effective is it? we'll tell you after the break. >> we're clouding up and we

have a light wintry mix on the way eventually. i'll have the details on the forecast. julie has your traffic. we'll do it after the break. here you go little man. [ huhumming ] [ babbling ] the cheerios bandit got you again? [ both laugh ] ♪ the one and only, cheerios ♪ nom, nom, nom. ♪ the one and only, cheerios ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ if loving you is wrong ♪ ♪

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the white house is getting some help to promote this year's easter egg roll from a

viral video star. president obama sent a special message to his protege kid president. >> looks like you got my message. >> yes, mr. president, i got your message. this is historic. the white house easter egg roll. dancing and rolling, i'm in. >> kid president is also known as 9-year-old robby novak. he stars in popular motivational videos and has gotten tens of millions of hits on youtube. >> i love it. i love the little can with the string. >> that's how we did things back in the old days. >> thank you. all these youtube stars i don't know about. >> i vaguely remember him. we'll have another one today i'm sure. >> i'm sure we will. we have weather talk so let's get to it. we have clouds on the increase. eventually, we'll get this wintry mix in here. i think it will be fairly light. we are not talking about a major storm. but temperatures have been colder this time around than the last storm that moved in so

the possibility is a little higher that anything that falls out there could start to cause some issues on the roads. here we go. i'm just looking and i don't see any area, any community where the temperature is above 32 this morning. that gives you an idea. we are definitely cold. 32 in washington. 32 in leonardtown. stevensville, 32 degrees. we are well entrenched in the 20s here north and west. martinsburg, good morning to you. you are 26 degrees, 25 up in hagerstown. it is particularly out to the west where we're expecting or anticipating the most difficulties here with this wintry mix developing later this morning, early thatch. i think it will start ads a period of light snow and sleet and then transition over to some rain eventually. there it is. again, the darker white you see here on your map cloud cover and then the lighter white is some snow and the pink you see, that is indicating sleet and

we've got a whole potpourri of stuff headed in our direction. much of this is not going to touch the ground for a time. we have to moisten up the atmosphere. we are talking about very light precipitation amounts. we are not going to get a whole lot in here. however, with temperatures cold enough, below freezing in many cases, we could start to have some icing issues. we could see accumulations of snow and sleet out there. nothing here locally along the 95 corridor. out to the west, we do have a winter weather advisory in effect until 10:00 saturday morning. our friend that are watching out to the west, you are officially advised that you need to take it easy here. i guess the biggest issue will be the potential for some ice accumulation, maybe up to about 1/10-inch of ice later this afternoon. some showers, drizzle rain later this afternoon. 37 the afternoon high so it

will be on the cold side. 33 tonight. rain continues be wintry mix for parts of the area, particularly west and then we'll get a coastal storm that will develop during the day tomorrow that. could give us more showers. tomorrow does not look like a great day. most of the region tomorrow is just showers. it could end as a wintry mix or even a little snow here in washington. let's talk about sunday. sunshine and 50. monday, sunshine and 50 too. let's talk about traffic and i'll make some more maps. >> only if they have sunshine on them. >> i'll do what i can. >> overnight construction cleared off the beltway as you travel between annandale and merrifield. you will find if you are traveling northbound on i-95, that is an easy ride coming from the prince william parkway and making your way out towards newington. off to a quiet start for this friday morning drive. as tuck wears mentioning, it will be different for the drive home. plan the trip accordingly. make sure you have a full tank

of the gas and plenty of wiper fluid. waking up to the dry pavement for that inbound commute. 395 looks great leaving duke street headed out to the 14th street bridge. you will find southbound 270 still in the clear from germantown headed out towards the split. outer loop of the beltway running without incident between college park and bethesda and no problems to report leaving 270 headed out to the american legion bridge. that's a check of your fox 5 on-time traffic. e traffic. bad news about this year's flu vaccine. it is doing a poor job protecting older people. health officials say it is only 9% effective in protecting seniors against the most common and dangerous strain of the bug. and only 56% effective overall. experts say the results are disappointing and highlight the need for a better vaccine. when it comes to cleaning your hands, experts say grab soap and water before you grab

the hand sanitizer. it doesn't kill the bacteria that causes intestinal troubles. some stunning results from a new study about seafood sold here in the u.s. t found a third of the seafood sold is mislabel the and you wouldn't even know. >> over the span of two years, a conservation group analyzed seafood samples from nearly 700 retail outlets in 21 states and the district. the study shows nearly 90% of the time you think you are buying snapper, you are actually being given something else. that number is 60% whether it comes to tuna. we spoke with the study's author last night. >> we sampled sushi venues, restaurants and grocery stores across the country and sushi venues had the highest levels of mislabeling, over 70% nationwide, over 80% here in the nation's capital.

grocery stores were in the mid. 38% nationwide and 40% in the district. apparently the seafood fly chain is very complex and not exactly transparent so the investigators don't know where the fraud is occurring. but it is startling to hear how much that happens they are saying. >> it is unreal that you can think you're buying one thing and you eat it and it is something else. >> and a health concern too. still ahead, the wizards send one of their guards to boston. trade details ahead in sports. forget about last week's cruise ship disaster. we'll tell you why now is the best time to book that trip out to sea.

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sea, experts say now is the prime time to book that vacation. phil keating tells us why. >> we had to poop in a bag. >> it was a nightmare at sea. >> a terrible odor. that is when it became a floating petri dish. >> try to live in there for three minutes and breathe. >> reporter: a cruise ship virtually paralyzed after a on- board fire knocked out everything from power to plumbing. many of the passengers say they will never sail again. >> never again in my life will i ever even walk around a cruise ship. i'm done. never again. not going to happen. >> reporter: this hatest incident kind setback for cruise companies. >> in terms of carnival, i think they'll have a little bit of repolishing of their brand required after he this get that ship back in the ocean. >> reporter: some travel experts say now may be the time to book a trip. >> yeah, is this the time when all of a sudden, these cruise deals will become perhaps a bit more prevalent and increasingly

more attractive. >> reporter: the same thing happened after last year's singing of the costa concordia also owned and operated by carnival. the industry is still prying to bounce back from the recession and saw bookings nosedive but deals were there and savvy sailors took advantage. >> we saw pretty aggressive sales within the next few months, some pretty aggressive package sales and travel incentives. >> reporter: deals don't just pertain to the cruise industry. rewind to 2009. the swine fluout break in

mexico had a crushing effect on resort cities. according to the united nations world tourism organization, the number of foreigners visiting mexico plummeted more than 11% in large part because of h1n1. in cancun alone, hotel vacancies for april 2009 fell to a paltry 20%. and nearly two dozen hotels suspended operations. others slashed rates and offered other incentives to lure back beachgoers. >> vacation companies sort of take the lead on that because, by bundling travel you do get some pretty aggressive savings passed on to the consumer. >> reporter: health issues arrest i serious concern on any vacation and it is wise to do? research first. a good first stop is the centers for disease control web site. also a good idea, buying trip insurance. phil keating, fox news. new gun laws in maryland are one step closer to taking shape this morning. we'll be right back. ] [ babbling ]

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a check on sports this friday morning. the caps back at the verizon center last night taking on the new jersey devils. the caps were first on the power play in the second